‘Taklub’ Wins Ecumenical Jury Special Mention in Cannes

Director Brillante Mendoza (leftmost), Senator Loren Legarda (2nd from right) and the rest of the Taklub entourage are joined on stage by Thierry Fremaux (rightmost), director of the Cannes Film Festival, before the movie’s world premiere

Taklub, the advocacy film directed by Brillante Mendoza and starring Nora Aunor, has received special commendation from the 2015 Ecumenical Jury at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in France.

Senator Loren Legarda, principal advocate of the film project, said that she was elated when Mendoza shared with her the good news.

“This is a great honor for the country. To have created such a film is already a big accomplishment since our focus is to strengthen awareness on disaster risk reduction and preparedness. Making it to Cannes was a remarkable feat. To be cited by the Ecumenical Jury is just overwhelming and truly a blessing,” she enthused.

“I hope that the attention and recognition that the film has been receiving would help achieve the real goal of this project—to inspire with the resilient Filipino spirit and to learn from the lessons of past disasters,” Legarda added.

The Ecumenical Jury awarded the special mention to Taklub, which is included in the festival’s Un Certain Regard category, “for the sensitive portrayal of individuals and communities working for life in the midst of suffering and death in the shadows of natural catastrophes in the Philippines.”

Nora Aunor plays a mother who lost her children to Typhoon Yolanda in the advocacy film

The Ecumenical Jury recognizes works of artistic quality that are testimonies “to the power of film to reveal the mysterious depths of human beings and the complexity of our society.”

Prior to the award, Taklub had been receiving many positive reviews from film critics and was even included in Vogue Italia’s “10 must-see movies in the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.”

Taklub was produced by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), in cooperation with the Presidential Communications Operations Office-Philippine Information Agency (PCOO-PIA), with the support of Senator Legarda, principal advocate of the project.